Scientific American News

Can E-Bikes Displace Cars?

The 21st-century equivalent of the cavalry has come charging in to rescue cities in China and South Asia in their battles against air pollution and global warming. And it's also beginning to help out on the traffic-choked streets in London, New York, São Paulo and Los Angeles.

"Hockey Stick" Scientist Crosschecks Critics: A Q&A with Michael E. Mann (prev...

Climatologist Michael E. Mann is most famous for what he calls one of the “least interesting” aspects of his work. In the 1990s he used data from tree rings, coral growth bands and ice cores as proxies for ancient temperatures, combining them with modern thermometer readings. This annual record o...

Dual Interpretations: Milky Way's Outer Fringe of Stars Sparks Disagreement

It's well known that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, a swirl of stars in an extended, many-armed disk . But the structure of the galaxy is far from two-dimensional. Above and below those familiar spiral arms is a lesser-known feature, a spherical swarm of stars that makes up a halo around the ...

And you can tell everybody, this is your mouse's song

Otherwise titled: Your mouse sounds JUST like his dad!

Scientist Says He Lied to Obtain Documents from Climate Skeptic Group

An internationally recognized water and climate change expert admitted yesterday that he lied about his identity to obtain internal funding and strategy documents from the Heartland Institute.

Five-in-One Vaccine Carries Small Risk of Seizure

By Zoë Corbyn of Nature magazine

Babies inoculated with a commonly used five-in-one vaccine to protect against a range of potentially lethal childhood diseases face up to a six-fold increased risk of fever-associated seizures on the day they are vaccinated, according to a study of nearly 3...

Extinction Looms for Rare Frog Species, Now Down to One Individual

And then there was one. The last known Rabb’s fringe-limbed tree frog ( Ecnomiohyla rabborum ) now lives by himself at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia after the zoo euthanized the only other member of its species.

The euthanized frog, another male, had been experiencing a “marked decline in health and b...

Fossilized, 'Pompeii' Forest Discovered Under Ash

About 300 million years ago, volcanic ash buried a tropical forest located in what is now Inner Mongolia, much like it did the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

Smoking Messes Mouth Bacterial Community

It's no secret cigarettes can yellow your teeth. But tobacco smoke has another, unseen effect. It can wipe out the healthy bacteria in your mouth, leaving the field open for pathogenic bugs--like the kind that cause gum disease. So says a study in the journal Infection and Immunity . [Purnima S....

Alex the Parrot's Posthumous Paper Shows His Mathematical Genius

From Nature magazine

Scientific American
The homepage for Scientific American magazine.

Scientific American Astronomy Channel
Read up on the latest discoveries in our galaxy and universe beyond at Scientific American's Astronomy Channel.